Pneumatic conveyors for leafy or fibrous material, particularly tobacco



1951 F. BODNER PNEUMATIC CONVEYORS FOR LEAFY OR FIBROUS MATERIAL,PARTICULARLY .TOBACCO 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 19, 1959 1961 F. BODNER2,995,404

PNEUMATIC CONVEYORS FOR LEAFY 0R FIBROUS MATERIAL, PARTICULARLY TOBACCOFiled May 19, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR FRITZ BODNER ATTORNEYSUnited States Patent 2,995,404 PNEUMATIC 'CONVEYORS 'FOR LEAFY 0R FI-BROUS MATERIAL, PARTICULARLY TOBACCO. Fritz Bodner, Hamburg-Lohbrugge,Germany, assrgnor to Hauni-Werke Kiirber & Co. K.G., Hamburg-Bergedorf,Germany Filed May 19, 1959, Ser. No. 814,247 Claims priority,application Germany May 23, 1958 2 Claims. (Cl. 302-28) The inventionrelates to improvements in pneumatic conveyors for leafy or fibrousmaterial, particularly tobacco. The tobacco is to be conveyed to aplurality of tobacco processing machines, for instance to a cigarettemaking machine. The tobacco is alternately removed by suction lines froma distributor device. Devices of this type are known in which mechanicalswitches or guides are employed which connect the tobacco conveyor linewith the respective tobacco processing machines. Such mechanicalswitches and guides are, however, subject to break-downs, because theybecome clogged after longer use and this has the result that the movingparts become jammed.

It has also been proposed heretofore to connect to a tobacco conveyorline a plurality of distributing lines by means of the interconnectionof a switch or a plurality of. switches. In such devices there isprovided a throttle flap in the suction air line of the tobacco conveyorline to be supplied with tobacco and at the same time the tobaccoconveyor line is connected by means of a switch to the main conveyorline.

The principal object of the invention is a device in which a suction airline is alternately connected with a plurality of conveyor lines and thenovelty consists in this that the suction fittings of the tobaccoconveyor lines are connected to a common distributor hopper.

It was discovered that the device of the present invention has thesurprising advantage that the conveyor lines which are not connectedwith the suction line will admit to the conveyor line, which isconnected to the supply hopper, a certain amount of auxiliary air andthat this auxiliary air will favorably influence the tobacco supply tothe conveyor line connected with the supply. Heretofore it was believedthat, if only auxiliary air passes through the not connected lines, thetobacco would remain simply in its rest position. According to thediscovery made by the present invention, however, it is now possible toconnect without any additional mechanical means a plurality of conveyorlines alternately with a source of supply.

The drawing shows diagrammatically a number of embodiments of the deviceof the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates in a top plan view an embodiment of a distributorhopper provided with three connections.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the distributor hopper along the line A-Bof FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates in a top plan view a distributor hopper provided withsix connections.

FIG. 4 illustrates still another top plan view of a modification inwhich a distributor hopper is provided with three connections.

FIG. 5 illustrates an elevation view of a distributor hopper shown inFIG. 4, and

'FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view of an arrangement of the distributordevice in connection with a suction line serving three cigarettemachines.

In the arrangement shown as an example in FIG. 6, a distributor device 1has three suction fittings 3, 4, 5 separately connected through tobaccoconveyor ducts 21,

2,995,404 Patented Au 8,1961

22, 23 to discharge chambers 24, 25, 26, each servinga cigarette machine37, 38, 39, respectively. Each of the discharge chambers 24, 25, 26 isconnected through a suction duct 27, 28, 29 to a common suction line 30which is in communication with a vacuum source (not shown). Thedischarge chambers 24, 25, 26 may be of any suitable kind such, forexample, as disclosed in Patent 2,812,217, and of the discharge chambersonly one at a time is made active by means of the throttle flaps 31, 32,33 which are operated by the magnets 34, 35, and 36, respectively.

The distributor device comprises a hopper 1, the lower end or bottom ofwhich is closed. The sidewall 2 in the lower portion of this hopper 1 isprovided with apertures to which are connected the three suctionfittings 3, 4 and 5 which in turn are attached to the three conveyorducts 21, 22, and 23, respectively. The inlet ends 3a and 5a of thesuction fittings 3 and 5 are out 01f at an angle in order to improve thedrawing of the tobacco into the conveyor lines.

According to FIG. 2, the tobacco is supplied by any desired source ofsupply and is dropped in the direction of the arrow 6 into the upperopen end of the hopper 1. From the interior of the hopper the tobaccoenters, as a result of the suction air line, into the selected conveyorline and, of course, in doing this the tobacco moves through therespective suction fitting. If, for instance, the suction fitting 4 isconnected with the suction air line, then the tobacco enters in thedirection of the arrow 7 into the suction fitting 4. In addition, theair passes through the distributor hopper 1 in the direction of thearrow 10 and also the suction fittings 3 and 5 are being used forfurnishing auxiliary air into the suction fitting 4, in that the airflows in the direction indicated by the arrows 8 and 9.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the invention in which the commondistributor hopper 17 is connected with six pneumatic conveyor linesprovided with the suction fittings 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

If it is desired that the width of the entire conveyor device is notmuch greater than the width of the tobacco feeding stream, then one mayemploy the modification illustrated in FIG. 4. In this last namedembodiment the suction fittings are connected to the sidewall 2 of thehopper 1 in the same manner as shown in FIG. 1. The two outer conveyorlines 18 and 20, however, are displaced with respect to the centerconveyor line of the device in an upward respectively downwarddirection, so that the three conveyor lines 18, 19 and 20 are arrangedone above the other with the conveyor line 19 in the center, in otherwords, the center axes in the conveyor lines 18, 19 and 20 are arrangedin a common vertical plane. The connection to a common suction line isaccording to US. Patent 2,843,429.

What I claim is:

1. A tobacco distributor device for selectively supplying tobacco to aplurality of cigarette machines through separate conveyor ductsalternately connect-ible to a common suction line, comprising a gravityfeed hopper having an open upper end and a closed lower end and adaptedto receive the tobacco to be distributed through the conveyor ducts, anda plurality of suction fittings in communication with the lower portionof said hopper and each connected to one of said conveyor ducts whereby,when suction is applied to one of said fittings through thecorresponding conveyor duct by said suction line, air is sucked intosaid conveyor duct through the falling tobacco in the hopper from theopen top of the hopper and from the other conveyor ducts.

3 r 4 2. The tobacco distributor as set forth in claim 1 pro- ReferencesCited in the file of this patent vided with three conveyor ductsconnected side by side UNITED STATES PATENTS to the hopper, in which theends of the two outer ducts are inclined towards the middle duct withinthe hopper 2,502,741 Norbom 1950 to facilitate the passage of air fromone duct 'to another 5 2,650,726 Amer Sept 1953 within said hopper Dec.

